UK UK - Angus Sinclair, serial rapist, 4+ murders, Scotland, 1961-1978

[zwiebel]

Angus Sinclair was convicted last month of the 1977 cold case rape and murder of 17-year-olds Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, after the girls went out to The World's End nightclub in Edinburgh, Scotland. Their strangled bodies were found the next day

He remained free for decades, but police have now revealed that in 2007, they discovered a car in a water-filled quarry. Inside was a 'chilling' kidnap kit of different-sized handcuffs, as well as children's clothing. The car was one Sinclair bought immediately after the killings of the girls, to replace the camper he had used to transport them. He only kept the new vehicle a few months before dumping it in the quarry.

Sadly, police were unable to obtain DNA from the clothing or cuffs because they'd been in water for nearly 30 years, so it's not known if he had further victims. The vehicle and contents were not brought up during the 'World's End' murder trial, as it wasn't deemed to be related.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/serial-killers-kidnap-kit-including-4725249

 

[OkieGranny]

From October:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-34647248

"Cutting-edge" DNA tests are being carried out in a bid to solve a 38-year-old murder which has been linked to a notorious Scottish serial killer.

Anna Kenny, 20, was last seen alive in Glasgow on 5 August 1977. Her body was found in Argyll on 23 April 1979... Police had previously linked Ms Kenny's murder to two other Glasgow murder cases - that of Hilda Miller on 1 October 1977 and the murder of Agnes Cooney on 2 December the same year.

Her murder was also linked to those of 17-year-olds Helen Scott and Christine Eadie... Last year, serial killer and rapist Angus Sinclair was jailed for a minimum of 37 years after finally being convicted of the murders.

In 2001, he was jailed for murdering 17-year-old Mary Gallacher on waste ground in the Barnhill area of Glasgow in November 1978.

In 1961, Sinclair also convicted of killing seven-year-old Catherine Reehill. He served six years of a 10-year sentence.

 

[Patience]

World's End serial killer Angus Sinclair dies
World's End serial killer Sinclair dies
Angus Sinclair, one of Scotland's most notorious killers, has died at the age of 74. He was convicted of four killings, including the World's End murders, but was thought to have killed at least four more. Sinclair had been in prison since 1982 after being convicted of a series of rapes and indecent attacks on children. The Scottish Prison Service confirmed he died overnight at HMP Glenochil in Alloa, Clackmannanshire.

 

[janne]

Sinclair is likely Scotland's worst serial killer; as noted above he was convicted of 4 murders, and multiple sexual assaults however he has been implicated in several other killings:

Convicted:

Catherine Reehill (1961) - a 7 year old neighbour in Glasgow who the then 15 year old Sinclair sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.

Mary Gallagher (1978) - 18 year old Mary Gallagher was attacked and killed while crossing waste ground near Barnhill railway station in Glasgow. Sinclair was convicted based on DNA evidence in 2001. Another teenage girl had been attacked at the same spot the previous evening, but managed to escape her assailant. Mary's handbag was found days later in a doorway near the crime scene

Christine Eadie & Helen Scott (1977) - teenage friends who were abducted while on an evening out in Edinburgh, sexually assaulted, murdered and dumped in rural areas outside the city. Sinclair was convicted of acting in concert with his deceased brother in law Gordon Hamilton in 2014 at the second attempt, after the sensational collapse of his first trial in 2007 led to a change to Scotland's double jeopardy laws.

It is believed that Sinclair embarked on a murderous rampage during the latter months of 1977 that led to the deaths of six women; Helen Scott and Christine Eadie in Edinburgh, and four Glasgow women, who were killed in a similar manner. Unfortunately all physical evidence in the Glasgow cases was found to be lost when the cases were reviewed in the 2000s:
Frances Barker: abducted from the street near her home in the West end of Glasgow in June 1977, killed and dumped on a farm track near the village of Glenboig. Career criminal Thomas Ross Young was convicted in the case, however this is now viewed by many as a miscarriage of justice, given the similarity to Sinclair's MO and his links to the area near the abduction site.
Anna Kenny: abducted from the street in the centre of Glasgow after a night out in August 1977, her body was discovered in a shallow grave in a remote area near Skipness, Argyle almost 2 years later.
Hilda MacAuley: abducted in October 1977 from the street after a night out at a dancehall in the southside of Glasgow, yards from Sinclair's home. Her body was found the next day in a lovers lane near Langbank, about 20 miles from where she was last seen.
Agnes Cooney: abducted from the street after a night out at a social club, again yards from Sinclair's home on the southside of Glasgow. Her body was found in farmland near Caldercruix in Lanarkshire days later.

As well as the above, several other cases have been linked to Sinclair by the press:
Helen Kane: young mother abducted and murdered in the centre of Edinburgh, where Sinclair was living at the time, after a night out in 1970
Sandy Davidson: 4 year old boy who disappeared from the coastal town of Irvine in 1976
Patricia Black: 22 year old woman who also disappeared from Irvine in 1976. Her handbag was found weighted down in the river Irvine
Eddie Cotogno: amateur pornographer and friend of Sinclair's, found beaten to death in the attic of his burning Dumbarton home in 1979
Carol Lannen: young mother abducted from the street at night and found strangled and stripped of clothing in Dundee's Templeton woods. Her handbag was later found nearly 100 miles away on the banks of the river don
Elizabeth McCabe: nursery nurse abducted from the street after a night out, her body was found in close proximity to where Carol Lannen's had been found 1 year earlier

 

[PastTense]

Meet the Aussie mathematician who put a serial killer behind bars

Professor Balding specialises in a type of DNA work called mathematical computational genetics. Rather than extracting the DNA in a lab, he writes mathematical models that can help translate the lab work into real-world answers.

His job: use the math models to weigh up how strong the evidence against Sinclair was. It was a particularly difficult task for two reasons. First, almost 40 years of storage had left the DNA badly degraded. The long strands had broken down into small sections, like a frayed rope. Second, each sample possibly contained DNA from four people: Sinclair, his brother-in-law who also was accused of committing the murders, and the two girls. Three billion bits of DNA from each person, broken down into tiny strands and mixed together, and almost 40 years old.

Professor Balding's mathematical model had to take all that into account, plus factor in likely degradation of the DNA, contamination, and experimental noise. Amazingly, Professor Balding was able to come up with a new estimate of the odds it was somebody else's DNA in several of the samples: one in a billion.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/...erial-killer-behind-bars-20190527-p51rhb.html

 

[dotr]

Sinclair is likely Scotland's worst serial killer; as noted above he was convicted of 4 murders, and multiple sexual assaults however he has been implicated in several other killings:

Convicted:

Catherine Reehill (1961) - a 7 year old neighbour in Glasgow who the then 15 year old Sinclair sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.

Mary Gallagher (1978) - 18 year old Mary Gallagher was attacked and killed while crossing waste ground near Barnhill railway station in Glasgow. Sinclair was convicted based on DNA evidence in 2001. Another teenage girl had been attacked at the same spot the previous evening, but managed to escape her assailant. Mary's handbag was found days later in a doorway near the crime scene

Christine Eadie & Helen Scott (1977) - teenage friends who were abducted while on an evening out in Edinburgh, sexually assaulted, murdered and dumped in rural areas outside the city. Sinclair was convicted of acting in concert with his deceased brother in law Gordon Hamilton in 2014 at the second attempt, after the sensational collapse of his first trial in 2007 led to a change to Scotland's double jeopardy laws.

It is believed that Sinclair embarked on a murderous rampage during the latter months of 1977 that led to the deaths of six women; Helen Scott and Christine Eadie in Edinburgh, and four Glasgow women, who were killed in a similar manner. Unfortunately all physical evidence in the Glasgow cases was found to be lost when the cases were reviewed in the 2000s:
Frances Barker: abducted from the street near her home in the West end of Glasgow in June 1977, killed and dumped on a farm track near the village of Glenboig. Career criminal Thomas Ross Young was convicted in the case, however this is now viewed by many as a miscarriage of justice, given the similarity to Sinclair's MO and his links to the area near the abduction site.
Anna Kenny: abducted from the street in the centre of Glasgow after a night out in August 1977, her body was discovered in a shallow grave in a remote area near Skipness, Argyle almost 2 years later.
Hilda MacAuley: abducted in October 1977 from the street after a night out at a dancehall in the southside of Glasgow, yards from Sinclair's home. Her body was found the next day in a lovers lane near Langbank, about 20 miles from where she was last seen.
Agnes Cooney: abducted from the street after a night out at a social club, again yards from Sinclair's home on the southside of Glasgow. Her body was found in farmland near Caldercruix in Lanarkshire days later.

As well as the above, several other cases have been linked to Sinclair by the press:
Helen Kane: young mother abducted and murdered in the centre of Edinburgh, where Sinclair was living at the time, after a night out in 1970
Sandy Davidson: 4 year old boy who disappeared from the coastal town of Irvine in 1976
Patricia Black: 22 year old woman who also disappeared from Irvine in 1976. Her handbag was found weighted down in the river Irvine
Eddie Cotogno: amateur pornographer and friend of Sinclair's, found beaten to death in the attic of his burning Dumbarton home in 1979
Carol Lannen: young mother abducted from the street at night and found strangled and stripped of clothing in Dundee's Templeton woods. Her handbag was later found nearly 100 miles away on the banks of the river don
Elizabeth McCabe: nursery nurse abducted from the street after a night out, her body was found in close proximity to where Carol Lannen's had been found 1 year earlier

rbbm.
US serial killer suspect linked to infamous Templeton Woods murders in Dundee
July 16 2020
''The family of an American man being investigated for several cold case killings think that he was involved in the infamous Templeton Woods murders.

Relatives believe he could have been involved in the deaths of Carol Lannen and Elizabeth McCabe in 1979 and 1980.

The man, who we are not naming, passed away four years ago but investigators are looking at DNA databases and genealogical research in a bid to solve at least two Californian murders.''

“He hasn’t been cleared as a suspect yet. I’ve contacted Crimestoppers UK over my suspicions about him and his connections to Scotland.

“My relative visited Scotland several times during the late 60s, 70s and 80s. He had family connections there and was also in the military.

“He was extremely self-righteous. He was brought up in a strict Catholic family and would’ve disapproved of prostitutes and single mothers, like Carol Lannen. He wrote about his fascination of nurses, like Elizabeth McCabe.''